General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Re: Attacks on Snowden, Greenwald. How the fuck do people like that sleep at night? [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)to violate our constitutional rights such as our right to privacy (which is protected in a number of provisions of the Bill of Rights) and then to keep those violations secret.
The Bill of Rights preface states that "Congress shall pass no laws" that violate our individual rights. The Congress does NOT have the right to keep its violation of our right to privacy secret. It does not have the authority to pass laws that violate our rights to privacy. For example, it does not have the right to pass a law that would impede our right to freedom of association. And that is what the NSA programs do. They violate our rights to freedom of association. When the government collects data on the your electronic communications, your electronic associations, it is impeding your freedom to communicate, i.e., associate.
The right of the House to keep its records on its proceedings secret does not give it the right to keep its records on proceedings in which it plots to violate our constitutional rights secret.
Similarly, the Fourth Amendment gives the government the right to violate our rights to privacy based upon probably cause and specific information regarding the items and places to be searched and seized. That specific provision in our Bill of Rights LIMITS the government's ability to search and seize our information, our writings, our correspondence, our phone calls. That is a LIMITATION, not an INVITATION.
No. The government does not have the right to be secretive as to its violations of the limitations placed on it by the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights.